The journey is as important as the destination…

Menu

Weight Loss Happens…

…apparently when you are not looking. Now some will say that it is just water -weight loss. Others will say, that’s too fast, you will lose muscle. Here is the thing. I cannot workout my upper body due to a now more than two week old shoulder injury that is healing, but very slowly. Also, exhaustion from emotional stress and situations beyond my control have left me doing only about three workouts per week for the past two weeks. Those have been mainly cardio workouts (35 to 60 min) and are not high intensity (cardiologist orders). Instead, I am trying to keep my heart rate at 133 to 151. Also, I adjusted my diet because it was not appropriate for me to continue to eat the number of calories and concentration of protein I had been taking in if I was not lifting weights. (interesting side note: when I don’t lift weights, I don’t get hungry as often) So I am now eating about 1400 calories per day. I am keeping protein in the 78 to 110g range, fats 29 to 37g, and carbs 150 to 200g.

And apparently I have lost about 4 pounds in two weeks. Certainly my knees will thank me on the treadmill given that some sources indicate that a 1 pound loss of weight relieves the body of 4 pounds of impact when running. There you go knees – 16 fewer pounds of pressure!

Please don’t misunderstand, I do want to lose a few pounds. 4 to 7 more to be exact. I am currently 141.7 on a 5’4″ frame. I have a fair amount of muscle, so I am actually smaller than one would expect at that weight. However, I don’t plan to lose all of it in the next two to four weeks. That would be too fast and not good for my body – weight loss greater than 2 pounds per week on a consistent basis is not really good for anyone.

I believe I have mentioned bodybugg in the past. This is how I track my calories in and out. I enter all of my food each day and the program gives me a read out of the nutritional composition of each meal and the entire day. I wear the device on my arm all day and on my leg at night and when I plug it into the computer, it gives me a fairly accurate graphic representation of calories burned throughout the day and night. I am then able to monitor my daily calorie deficit. During the past 2 weeks, my average deficit has been about 500 calories which should have led to a loss of about a pound per week. Given that I doubled that, I suspect something else is going on. I will continue to monitor things and make adjustments as needed.

So there you are. Finding your healthy balance, eating what your body needs, doing what is good for you, and listening to your healthy inner self can lead to positive results. BEWARE: the inner voice that says you should eat the entire bag of cookies and sit for hours in front of the television is not the voice to whom you should be listening!